By Mary Kelly & Shauna Mujic.
Overall, a challenging, but fair paper. The well-prepared student was granted the opportunity to excel. This paper had good choice, with questions suited to all students, and did not veer too drastically away from the syllabus and textbook knowledge. It was a very current and modern exam, and nice to see questions made relatable to students, with reference to businesses such as Centre Parcs, Netflix and InterSport Elverys.
Short questions
A mix of questions from all units, some requiring quite a lot of detail. Students will have welcomed the variety of question styles, including multiple choice, business abbreviations, calculation of Balance of Trade and Balance of Payments, and the Acid Test ratio. Given that students were required to answer 8 out of 12 questions, most found this manageable.
Applied Business Question: a challenging ABQ, allowing stronger students the opportunity to shine. As with all ABQ questions, the points lie within the case study. The ABQ examined long-term finance, opportunities/challenges of entering international markets, and -for the first time in an ABQ- the impact of economic variables on a business. This third part of the ABQ came as a surprise, but is common in the unit 6 long question, so most students would have had this prepared and managed it well. Â
Long Questions
Students were required to answer 4 out of 8 long questions. In line with the last two years, the additional long question in part one was on Unit 1.Â
Questions 1 & 4 were both based on unit 1, which were the more challenging questions on the paper as they required a very in-depth knowledge of unit 1. Question 2 on unit 6 was very approachable, as was question 3 on unit 7. Question 5 was a very manageable question on unit 3.
A balanced blend of topics from units 4 & 5 were examined within questions 6 & 7, and it was great to see an appearance of the long-awaited wage calculation question, which most students will have had practiced well.
Question 8; an approachable question on unit 5 topics, although somewhat surprising to note the lack of Marketing here. Students will have welcomed the appearance of the Breakeven chart here, which was very manageable for the practiced student.
